TEPCO adds missing radiation data to online archive

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Nov. 19 that previously missing radiation monitoring data taken during the early phase of last year's nuclear disaster is now available from the utility's online database.

The data in question concerns readings at monitoring posts on the grounds of TEPCO's Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant, 12 kilometers south of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The facility was hit by reactor meltdowns after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.

Readings taken between 9 a.m. on March 15 and 11 p.m. on April 3, 2011, had been partially missing from the public-access database.

The readings show radiation levels quadrupled abruptly to 80 microsieverts per hour at 9:40 a.m. on March 16. Sources said that may have had to do with a leakage of radioactive substances from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's No. 3 reactor, where a pressure drop occurred in the reactor containment vessel on March 16.

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